What would a New Years season be without the world’s charismatic prophets claiming a new date for the return of Christ? This New Years season is no different, and charismatics are lining up to declare a date in June. If you listen closely, you can hear Jim Bakker preparing the sale fliers for his survival buckets right this second.
Pope Sylvester said Jesus would return in the year 1000. Emanuel Swedenborg said it would be 1757. William Miller said it would be 1844 (and 1843). Charles Taze Russell said it would be 1874. Joseph Smith said it would be 1891. The Watchtower Society (of the Jehovah’s Witnesses) said it would be 1914. Herbert Armstrong predicted four separate dates, including 1935, 1943, 1972 and 1975. Harold Camping predicted 1994 and 2011. The year 2000 was guessed by Edgar Cayce, Ed Dobson and (by some reports) Jerry Falwell. Jack Van Impe guessed 2012. Mark Blitz (the Blood Moon guy) said it would be 2015.
Never mind all those false predictions, however. This time those crazy charismatics are onto something. For reals.
Mathieu Jean-Marc Joseph Rodrigue made headlines at the turn of the New Year for going on record that the Bible says the world is going to end on June 24, 2018.
News reports indicate:
“Conspiracy theorist Mathieu Jean-Marc Joseph Rodrigue has highlighted a passage in the Book of Revelations as a sign that 2018 could be the Earth’s last year.
It reads: “He was given authority to act for 42 months.”
Mr Joseph Rodrigue reckons the passage from Revelations when added to the crop harvest and price indicates a shocking truth.
He wrote: ‘I heard a voice in the middle of the four living beings. This is wisdom. He who has intelligence can interpret the figure of the beast. It represents the name of a man. His figure is 666.’
To find the date of the apocalypse, he takes the 666 figure and adds it to his earlier calculations, with the 42 months from the bible.”
I can’t wrap my head around this claim. He takes 666 and adds it to earlier calculations with the 42 months from the bible? What earlier calculations? What does his mean, 709 months? Why don’t we get to evaluate the veracity of his “earlier calculations.”
You can find the prophet on his Facebook page and as a bonus, you can see how he uses both the Periodic Table an the U.S. dollar bill to prove his apocalypse assumption.
In reality, it looks like this prophet has a following of about fifteen people, and he appears to be missing for about a year. Nonetheless, it’s enough for news outlets to pick up his prediction. As often as charismatics claim to know that day or hour, even the mainstream press knows that their date-setting is utterly predictable.
